26/11/2019 - The tide is nigh, the children are armed
The mammoth in the room With the fire raging, and the Tricksy Talisman on the brink of collapse, the group knew they had to get out of there ASAP! Another individual who happened to be in the Talisman, Christo Gatigimy, had come to the same conclusion... Upstairs, Nika, having helped Khathraa out of the hole he was dangling through, promptly managed to fall in herself, but being a crazy-dextrous monk, took this fully in her stride. Khathraa then used a sneaky flying spell to get himself, Darren and Jacob out of an upstairs window and into relative safety. Downstairs, Rowan shape-shifted into an earth elemental and dived under the floor to make his escape, whilst Corus used his watery magics to put out the fires and blow away the smoke. This worked well, though did get the confused Christo very wet! Unit and Christo both decided to make haste for the door. Finding it completely blocked, Unit used his immense strength to clear away as much debris as he could, before Christo finished the job with a well-placed blast of his eldritch magic. As the two of them exited, Christo tossed Unit a “silver coin” (read, random piece of metal) as a thank you for Unit’s help, which Unit gratefully accepted. Unit then proceeded to barge into the weapons store and grab everything he could carry. Around the corner, earth-elemental-Rowan emerged up onto ground level and saw Khathraa, Darren and Jacob levitating above him. Unphased, and realising many people were still inside, he used his massive earth-hands to fist a large hole in the wooden wall. Back inside, Corus and Nika realised that Gawdnus was in big trouble, barely conscious, with legs crushed, and fire rapidly approaching. Thankfully, the quick thinking Corus had a plan, and decided to polymorph Gawdnus into a mammoth. This worked excellently, and as Corus and Nika darted out of the fist-hole made by Rowan, the mammoth charged afterwards. Unfortunately Corus, not being the wisest of folk, had forgotten about the mammoth he had literally just created, and failed to move out of the way as the mammoth charged through. Consequently the mammoth trampled him into unconsciousness, ending the polymorph spell, and rendering poor Gawdnus back into a crippled wreck. To the orphanage, part two After Corus was brought back to consciousness, the group quickly realised that their situation was dire. The entire City appeared covered in smoke and dust. Fires raged everywhere. People were screaming. Buildings were destroyed. But all was not lost, as Unit and Christo had gotten themselves some sweet sweet swag from the weapons store. After some very brief introductions from Christo, Jacob and Darren worriedly suggested they should go to the orphanage to check if Eiranna and the orphans were alright. After quickly making their way through the disintegrating City, it was evident that the orphanage was very much not alright. Half of the tower had collapsed, and many orphans were gathered around some fallen debris, desperately trying to lift it. As the group arrived, the orphans hysterically explained that two sisters, Allys and Emilia were trapped underneath. Between them, the group quickly lifted the debris, to find that Allys was unconscious, and Emilia clearly deceased. Rowan quickly revivified Allys, who then began to panic. The group watched as her eyes appeared to glow, her whole body shaking unnaturally. Khathraa then approached her and after speaking apparent gobbledegook for a few moments, managed to calm her down. Christo managed to lip read some of what he said, but none of it made much sense to him. Rowan then commenced the long and complex procedure of reincarnation, in the hopes of returning Emilia to life. Eyes in the sky The group then realised that Eiranna was nowhere to be found. Thinking she may be trapped up in the tower somewhere, Nika and Corus released their figurines of wondrous power, a giant owl and griffin respectively. Nika and Unit then climbed up into the tower to look for her. However, whilst they did this, those with eyes in the sky realised something strange. The sea appeared to be disappearing! The tide had receded several hundred metres, and people were now walking onto the exposed sea-floor scavenging stuff. After some careful inspection, Christo and Corus recognised that this strange sea-behaviour marked the impending arrival of a potentially massive tidal wave. Realising that the whole City was in great danger, the group split up to what they could do help. To the Upper City Khathraa, the now-levitating Corus, and Christo decided to head for the shoreline, where people had gathered to either escape the fires and damaged buildings or opportunistically scavenge from the exposed sea floor. As they went, Christo advised Khathraa not to tell people of the approaching disaster, as it could lead to a stampede that might cause more harm than good. Khathraa ignored this advice, and proceeded to tell all who would listen to make for high ground. A few people listened, and began slowly trickling their way up towards the main gate into Merchendale’s Upper City – the higher walled portion of the City which housed King Bharabesi and the other rich noble families of Merchendale. Christo, inwardly irritated at not being listened to, left Khathraa and made his own way up towards the Upper City. Down by the shore, Corus was desperately trying to persuade those people scavenging the seabed to move to higher ground. Unfortunately, the hardened people of Merchendale were extremely uninclined to listen to the weird-looking levitating Triton who was shouting at them. Frustrated at their stubbornness, Corus decided to use his staff of thunder and lightning to scare them into action! So, firing a large thunder clap, he continued to tell the numpties below to run. This seemed to get their attention, and a fair number began moving upward. Back at the orphanage, having been unable to find Eiranna in the damaged tower, Nika and Unit decided the most important thing to do was look after the kids. This obviously meant there was but one course of action, to arm the children with the weaponry Unit had salvaged earlier (everyone knows that the best way to stop a tidal wave is to throw an eight year old with a sword at it, right). So, with the children looking like a band of ruffians, Nika and Unit made decided to usher the children towards the nearest sub-gate into the Upper City. Nika and Corus also commanded their flying beasts to carry the still-spell casting Rowan and Emilia directly over the Upper City walls and into safety. Trouble at the gates Khathraa, along with several hundred others, continued to make their way up towards the main-gate into the Upper City. However, as they approached, Khathraa realised that everyone was backing up and milling around in the courtyard immediately before the gate. To his horror, he realised that the Upper Gate had been shut and locked, with dozens of Upper City guards and their Commander patrolling the parapet above. Deciding that for now the best thing to do was wait, Khathraa positioned himself where he had good visual on the gate and watched as people continued to charge into the crush of people now manically trying to get into the Upper City. A bit further to the east, Christo had found a smaller sub-gate into the Upper City. This gate was also locked and barred, though was only protected by a handful of City Guard, including a young looking Captain. Christo, deciding that diplomacy was his best route to safety, attempted to fool the young Captain into believing he was an important visiting dignitary from a far off land. The Captain, clearly very unsure of himself, just about believed Christo’s tale and quickly let him enter. Even further to the east, Nika, Unit and the mob of armed children found themselves in front of another sub-gate into the City. Like the other gates, this too was locked and guarded. Nika and Unit attempted to appeal to the guard’s better nature. Surely they wouldn’t let these poor innocent children die? Unfortunately, the armed nature of the children did not given them the ‘innocent’ look, and the guards flatly refused to let them enter. Nika and Unit then herded the children towards the next gate along – the same one Christo had just successfully negotiated. This time, the young guard was more receptive to their pleas, and he agreed to let them and the children in. However, by this point there were many other City folk milling around the gate trying to get in. As such, the guard said he would only allow them access if they ensured no one else was able to enter. Nika and Unit agreed and the guard opened the gate to allow the children through. Unfortunately, Nika and Unit had quite different ideas on what agreeing with the guards request to keep out others meant. Nika, having always had no intention to stop anyone else saving themselves, actively tried to hold the gate open for longer. In contrast, Unit was actively doing all he could to stop people! Eventually, Unit simply pushed Nika into the Upper City, allowing himself and everyone else to be shut out in the Lower City. Now inside the City, Nika commanded her Griffin to fly Gawdnus to her, as well as to look for and bring Eiranna to them– both of which it did successfully. After being dropped off inside the Upper City by Corus and Nika’s flying beasts, Rowan continued his casting of reincarnate. Several guards angrily approached him, but thankfully the Captain of the group, an older gentleman, was persuaded by Rowan’s explanation of why he was there and gave him permission to stay and continue saving the girls life. However, the Captain was less impressed with the actions of the Owl and Griffin, who Nika and Corus had ordered to literally snatch young families off the streets and drop off into the Upper City. Rowan continued his spell confused as dozens of screaming children and their mothers were dropped all around him. The tide is nigh Back out in the Upper City, Unit and Corus had now made their way round to the main gate where hundreds and hundreds of people had now gathered, trying to get in. Suddenly, off into the horizon, the levitating Corus noticed a ripple on the sea, and knew that the tide was nigh. At this point Khathraa decided to act and, summoning all the ancient power he could muster, fired a blast of gate-opening magic. The gate splintered open with a bang, and the guards and Commander were powerless as the hundreds of people outside charged into the Upper City, Khathraa and Unit amongst them. However, just as Khathraa thought all was done, the Commander of the City Guard raised his hands and with a flourish summoned a semi-transparent wall of force across the gate opening, stopping hundreds of people from gaining entrance. Realising that the wave was about to hit, Khathraa stepped forward and attempted to force this mage-Commander to loose concentration on his spell. From above Corus did the same and between them they managed to knock the Commander off the wall onto the Upper City floor. However, the Commander managed to hold his spell, and the wall-of-force remained. Khathraa, Unit, Corus and the others inside the Upper City could then only watch through the transparent wall as a massive, thunderous, ear-splitting wave of water ploughed up through the City. They watched in horror as the wave swept up everything in its path. Ships, people, even small buildings. A few seconds later the huge wall of water struck the Upper Wall. Those who had been trapped outside by the mage-commander were obliterated as they were smashed by the water into the wall. A second slightly smaller wave then charged up through the City, also smashing into the wall with an almighty crash. Several seconds passed before all was silent, with no one quite able to believe the destruction they had just witnessed…